Overview Of Body Fat Percentages In Men And Women

As you can notice in the above image, men look super shredded if they are in the 3-9% range of body fat, while women don’t have to go that low. Women look shredded at 10-15% body fat. Unless you compete in professional bodybuilding competitions you do not want to go extremely low in body fat percentage.

And if you try to do it naturally, you won’t maintain it year-round.

The best range of body fat percentage for women is anywhere between 14-19% with 17-18% being the most athletic and sexy look.

The best range of body fat percentage for men is anywhere between 6-12% with 7-10% being the most athletic and sexy look.

That’s what your goal should be.

If your body fat percentage is higher, then there is no abdominal definition. The higher you go, the fatter you are going to look.

On the contrary, going lower than that is not enjoyable from a dieting perspective. And can hardly be maintained year round. It’s also not optimal in terms of overall aesthetics.

How To Decrease Body Fat Percentage Without Losing Muscle Mass

The biggest fear of fitness enthusiasts is getting smaller.

Losing the muscle mass and strength you acquired after exhausting periods of bulking and hard work is indeed frustrating.

But should it really be your worst nightmare?

It shouldn’t be…if you are going to do as I say.

Let’s start with what you should not do:

1. Do not be afraid of losing weight. Depending on your current level of body fat, you might need to lose about 5-20 kg to look shredded.

2. Do not be afraid of lifting less weight in the gym. What matters is relative strength (how much you lift compared to your current weight).

3. Do not follow a crash diet, such as no-fats or no-carbs (at least not right away).

4. Do not deplete your muscles with endless hours of cardio.

5. Do not increase your training volume.

Now, let’s talk about what you should do:

1. Strength Training

If you want to maintain your muscle mass while decreasing your body fat, it’s essential to do strength training a few times per week.

Just 3 times would suffice for busy men, entrepreneurs and fitness enthusiasts who don’t want their life to revolve solely around fitness, but still want to be ripped.

Most fitness trainers told me that if I wanted to lose weight, then I would have to give up all the foods I like to eat.

I should get on a strict diet with 4-5 small, healthy, clean meals every day. And I should also do lots of cardio!

Sounds familiar?

If you have ever tried to lose weight and lean down, then you have probably been told the same nonsense.

And the reason I call it nonsense is not because it doesn’t work – because it might work – but because you can’t suggest a solution while also ignoring the potential alternatives.

Don’t worry, I will help you broaden your horizons. Then you can educate your gym’s ignorant trainers:

Do you know why this conventional approach of eating clean and constant meals is so widely suggested?

Because clean and healthy foods contain less calories. You are not losing fat because you eat healthier food or small and frequent meals, but because you are consuming less calories!!

Got it?

In fact, you could just eat burgers, fries and sweets and lose weight provided that you stay under your maintenance calories.

Of course that wouldn’t be the healthiest long-term nutrition plan. But the point is that losing fat is mostly a matter of restricting your caloric intake and putting your body into the state of caloric deficit!

How To Decrease Body Fat Percentage:

The 7 Essential Components OF Dieting For A Ripped And Lean Physique

Component #1: Don’t go overboard with the caloric deficit

Research suggests that 1 pound of fat equals to 3500 calories.

Therefore, a daily caloric deficit of 500 calories would be enough to help you lose 1 pound per week. Right?

It’s simple math, but this logic causes people to make a significant mistake. They restrict their calories too much, in an attempt to decrease their body fat percentage faster.

Just because eating 500 calories less per day would help you lose 1 pound a week, it doesn’t mean you should eat 1500 less so you can lose 3 pounds a week.

If you do that, then you are also going to experience other issues. Typical examples are loss of muscle mass, lack of energy, constant hunger and bad mood.

Your body can only lose a certain amount of fat every day, in a way that’s optimal and doesn’t include these side effects.

Therefore, you need to restrict your calories, but NOT TOO MUCH!

Component #2: Calculating your caloric deficit

To calculate the calories you have to eat for losing weight and decreasing your body fat, simply multiply your goal bodyweight in pounds with the number 12 for a slow, but steady fat loss rate.

In that degree, you will be able to lose about 0.4-0.8 kg per week or 1-2 pounds.

For instance, a 200 lbs man who would like to eventually be 190 lbs, should eat approximately 2250 calories a day.

For a moderate fat loss rate, use the number 11 to do the same calculation or even the number 10 for a much faster fat loss rate.

However, I only recommend going down to 10 calories per pound of goal bodyweight, if you are in a deficit for more than 2 months and your body is already used to it.

Going below 10 calories per pound of goal bodyweight is not recommended, and usually associated with the negative side-effects I mentioned above. Furthermore, the lower you go – the higher is the risk of losing some muscle mass.

Component #3: Food Scale & Calorie Tracker

MyFitnessPal is a free app that tracks your calories and keeps you accountable to reach your fat burning goals.

It makes losing fat and keeping track of your progress absolutely effortless, and can also calculate the exact calories you need to eat based on your lifestyle.

You could use the above rule of thumb (10-12 calories) or you could simply let My Fitness Pal do the math for you.

(It should give you a very similar estimate.)

How To Use MFP

You need to get a digital food scale. You can buy this online or in any of your local stores for $10-$20.

All you have to do is weigh the food you are going to it, find it on MFP and write how many grams, pounds or ounces you ate. The program will do all the calculations for you.

This takes a ridiculously low amount of effort (2-3 minutes a day).

If you download it on your phone, it even has a scanner function that lets you scan the barcode of the food you ate and automatically finds it in its database!

Accountability and keeping track of your progress is incredibly important.

Knowing how to decrease body percentage is not enough. Although you might be aware of the fat loss principles described in this guide, reducing your body fat also requires discipline and focus.

Component #4: Increased Water Intake

I don’t need to tell you that drinking water is important for your health, do I?

Everybody knows this, but who does really commit to drinking adequate water?

Women should drink at least 2L per day while men should drink at least 3L.

MyFitnessPal lets you track your water intake. Personally, I don’t do that. I find it more convenient to put two 1.5L waters under my desk, knowing that I have to drink all of it before I go to bed.

If I am going to lift weights that day, then I will take another 1.5L bottle with me to the gym.

Component #5: HIIT Cardio (Fasted)

If you were looking for the single most effective solution on how to decrease body fat percentage, then that would be HIIT + a caloric deficit.

HIIT means high intensity interval training. That means alternating periods of intense effort with periods of moderate to low or even non-existent effort.

A simple example of HIIT is 8 rounds of super fast 100 meter sprints, followed by 1 minute of light jogging.

(Did you ever wonder why sprinters are so ripped?)

Why is HIIT so amazing?

After Burn Effect: your body continues burning calories for up to 48 hours AFTER your workout is OVER!

Helps with building lean muscle tissue.

Alternating the intensity helps you burn more calories than a steady intensity workout.

Requires significantly shorter workouts. No need to run on the treadmill for hours.

Actually, the University of Western Ontario conducted a very interesting study [4]. This showed that only if you did four to six 30-second sprints, you would burn more fat over time than if you did 60 minutes of incline treadmill walking!

Taking HIIT A Step Further

You don’t only want to do HIIT, but you want to dofasted HIIT for the maximum effect.

Fasted cardio is the type of cardio that you do when you wake up, without having eaten anything since the last night.

Combine it with HIIT and your body becomes a fat burning furnace – stripping off your body fat like crazy.

Lastly, you don’t need to spend lots of time doing it. Anything between 5-20 minutes would be fine. HIIT itself is very demanding and fasted cardio may increase muscle degradation if you stretch your workout too far.

Keep it short and the results will be nothing compared to hours of running on a treadmill.

Component #6: Balanced Macronutrients

Most diets make you reduce your intake of a certain macronutrient. You are either limiting your carbohydrates or your fats.

Component #7: Simplicity

Don’t bother with following weird plans and physically demanding diets.

For example, there is a fat-loss protocol called carb-cycling. The idea is to change your carb intake every day to stimulate your metabolism.

For carb-cycling, you eat only 25 grams of carbs today, 75 tomorrow, 150 the day after tomorrow and 200 the next day. Then you go back to 25 grams and repeat the cycle.

That might be smart and effective. But it’s also time-consuming and annoying. You have to constantly re-calculate your macronutrient intake and you are limited by numbers.

You are already limiting your calories, so why limit yourself even more?

Keep things simple and effective: caloric deficit, adequate protein and as many carbs and fats as you can eat.

How To Decrease Body Fat Percentage Part B:

The 3 Most Effective Supplements For A Ripped And Lean Physique

While supplementation is not necessary for reducing your body fat to 10-12%, there are some supplements that can give you that extra edge.

There are tons of weight loss supplements, fat burners, metabolism boosters and other stuff on the market, but let’s cut through the crap and focus only on what gives you the best return on investment.

It’s pointless to spend $200 on supplements just to accelerate your fat loss by a rate of 1.7 when you could spend $50 and accelerate it by a degree of 1.5.

The extra $150 is simply not worth it.

Now, there are 3 supplements that work like magic when you want to decrease your body fat. While you can also become lean without them, if you feel that you want that extra something, then these 3 are the only things you need:

1. BCAA’s (branched chain amino acids)

BCAA’s are three amino acids – in particular leucine, isoleucine and valine.

Amino acids in general are the building blocks of protein, which in return is the building block of your muscles.

How can these help you?

BCAA’s are not produced by your body, so you have to get them from your food or supplements. The good thing about them is that they are metabolized in the muscles, meaning that they go straight into your bloodstream and can be used immediately.

Consequently, they help with preventing muscle loss when you are on a diet, speed up recovery or even promote muscle growth.

BCAA’s are great for when you are training fasted or doing intermittent fasting, so I prefer to take them in the morning.

2. Whey Protein

Whey is derived from milk and is very fast absorbed in the human body.

As a result, it becomes available for use almost immediately, leading to your muscles being repaired faster. This sounds like what BCAA’s do, right?

That’s true, because Whey actually contains amino acids.

I know what you are thinking.

Do you need both Whey and BCAA’s? And the answer is that it depends. Even though whey has just a few calories – about 200 per 50 grams of protein – it breaks your fast if you take it in the morning.

If you are not fasting, then you probably do not need both. But if you are, then taking BCAA’s in the morning helps with preventing muscle breakdown. Then you can drink your Whey Protein Shaker at night.

What Whey Should You Get?

All you pay is the brand as wheys are not really formulated much differently.

I would choose one that’s very low in sugar, which doesn’t provide you with anything other than good taste. Drink 1-2 scoops after your training, depending on your protein needs.

3. Creatine

Creatine is produced by your body in small amounts and can be also found in meat.

The purpose of creatine is to increase ATP (adenosine triphosphate) within your muscles. When your muscles run out of ATP, that’s when you reach the point of failure when you feel that you can’t keep it up anymore.

Ultimately, creatine helps you with grinding out these last crucial reps and therefore makes you stronger. It could help you maintain your strength during your cut or even increase it.

Any creatine-monohydrate would suffice.

How To Decrease Body Fat Percentage Part C:

Free 90-Day Training Routine & Cheat Sheet For A Shredded Physique

Theory is great and all the knowledge I shared with you in that article instantly puts you ahead of anyone else trying to get lean.

For the practical people, I took it one step further. I have put together a cheat sheet of the most important things to keep in mind.

You can download it and keep it on your phone or computer for immediate reference.

You will only work out 3 days per week, because you don’t want to put too much stress on your Central Nervous System. You also want to give your muscles enough time to recover and perform at your maximum level during your next training session, without feeling sore.

Week 1

Upper Body Workout

Lower Body Workout

Upper Body Workout

Week 2:

Lower Body Workout

Upper Body Workout

Lower Body Workout

Then, you go back to what you did in Week 1. Essentially, what you are doing is just alternating between the two full body workouts.

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A college dropout (chemical engineering) who founded his 1st company at 19 years old.

By 20, he was financially free, making more money than Harvard MBA graduates, wall street analysts, doctors or lawyers.

Damian became a go-to consultant for 7-figure companies, made mid 6-figures on Fiverr, moved from a roach-infected dorm room to a Dubai penthouse and is currently running 3 businesses with several employees at such a young age.